The just-concluded ACTS* 2004 evangelistic series in the Rwandan capital yielded a large number of new Seventh-day Adventist church members - more than 10,000 at last count. However, that's not the only residual effect of the campaign.

Thanks to efforts by Adventist broadcast ministry It Is Written, the church's East-Central Africa region and local church leaders in Rwanda, the Remera Seventh-day Adventist Church, in a suburb of Kigali about five miles from the city center, was refurbished and expanded into a facility that can seat 10,000 people indoors and an additional 5,000 outside. The Remera church was the uplink site for the ACTS 2004 campaign, and was visited by between 12,000 and 14,000 people for the concluding meeting of the series, on August 28.

"When It Is Written was going to come to Kigali, our intent was to rent a stadium," explained It Is Written speaker/director Mark Finley, who is also director of the Center for Global Evangelism at the church's world headquarters. "One seated 15,000 people and the other 35,000."

However, logistics and financial reasons removed the stadiums from consideration, he explained. Instead, by redirecting some financial resources, renovations at the Remera church were completed, creating not only the uplink venue but also a facility where large area meetings can be held. The facility is believed to be one of the largest Seventh-day Adventist church buildings in the world, Finley said.

The evangelist, who has conducted ACTS meetings throughout North America and in many overseas nations, said that while such outreaches are beneficial, an infrastructure needs to be in place to sustain believers after a large event.

"In addition to those baptized, what are you leaving behind?" he asked. "Are you leaving an additional church facility, are you leaving Bible lessons for people?"

In the case of ACTS 2004, Finley said, the Adventist Church in Kigali and in Rwanda as a whole are benefiting from the new building; there was a provision of 135 bicycles for local pastors and 13 motorcycles for departmental directors to use in their travels; and 2 million pieces of literature, including 50,000 Bible lessons were given in the Kinyarwandan language. A final piece of outreach involved the construction of a low-power UHF television station, which is now distributing the Hope Channel, an Adventist church network, to 50,000 homes in Kigali.

Along with these efforts, Finley noted, 100 wheelchairs as well as canes and walkers were distributed to hospitals in Kigali for use by patients.

"We feel that responsible evangelism looks at each aspect of church life and integrates the evangelistic process with the life and witness of the church," Finley said.

Along with three satellite downlink sites in Kigali, a further 183 satellite locations throughout Africa brought the message to an estimated 200,000 people nightly, in 15 languages.

*ACTS = Acronym for acknowledgment, communion, training, and service